Substitute Teacher Guide • Grade 9 • Unit 2: Understanding Digital Images
Design Principles for Layout: Repetition, Contrast, Proximity, Alignment & Scale — Day 3 of 3
Today's focus: Redesign Workshop
✅ Before Students Arrive
- Materials needed today:
- Printed "good vs. bad" flyer examples for each principle
- 2-3 real sample flyers per student/pair for annotation
- A poorly-designed sample flyer (paper, one per student)
- Rulers
- Pencils, scissors, glue sticks
- Most students keep their class notebook at its usual spot in the room and use it every day (see routine below) -- but it's each student's own notebook, so a few may bring theirs from home instead. Either way, everyone should have one out.
- Write today's Do Now on the board before the bell rings (see below).
📓 Daily Notebook Routine (students already know this)
Keep this going every day, in your class notebook: date today's entry, jot your Do Now response, add any new vocabulary word(s) from today's Key Vocabulary section (word + a quick picture + a simple definition in your own words), and take 60 seconds to sketch something connected to today's topic. This notebook is yours to study from, reference on projects, and pull evidence from later for your portfolio.
🗣️ Opening: Do Now
Write or project this, and have students start immediately:
“Pick your weakest principle from yesterday and define it again in your own words. Redesign workshop (30 min): redesign a poorly-laid-out flyer by hand (cut, rearrange, glue, or redraw), deliberately applying at least 3 of the 5 principles. Written explanation (5 min): 2-3 sentences on your choices.”
📋 Class Plan (step by step)
-
Step 1 — 30 min
🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.
📋 Redesign workshop (30 min): redesign a poorly-laid-out flyer by hand (cut, rearrange, glue, or redraw), deliberately applying at least 3 of the 5 principles.
-
Step 2 — 5 min
🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.
📋 Written explanation (5 min): 2-3 sentences on your choices.
-
Step 3 — 5 min
🗣️ Say: "Let's hear from a few people before we move on."
📋 Quick gallery share (5 min).
🔑 Vocabulary Introduced Today
- Scale
- The size of an element in relation to everything else around it.
✅ Wrap-Up: Exit Ticket
A few minutes before the bell, say: "Time to finish your exit ticket."
“Pick your favorite of the 5 principles from today and explain, in one sentence, why it matters in a design.”
Collect exit tickets (or have students leave them in the usual spot) for the regular teacher to review.
⏳ If You're Short on Time
Protect the Do Now and the Exit Ticket above all else -- those are how the regular teacher tracks daily progress. If a step above is optional/homework, or is a "share out"/discussion step, shorten or skip it first.
⏳ If Students Finish Early
Have them keep working in their notebook: add extra detail to today's vocabulary sketch, review previous vocabulary, or -- if this is a portfolio update week for this class -- work on their portfolio. Early finishers should never be idle or distracting to classmates still working.
📝 For the Regular Teacher (fill in ahead of time)
- Regular teacher's name / how to reach them: ______________________________
- Where finished work / exit tickets go: ______________________________
- Front office extension / emergency contact: ______________________________
- Anything else this class needs to know today: ______________________________